Meteor Crater is a
meteorite impact crater approximately east of
Flagstaff and west of
Winslow in the northern
Arizona desert of the
United States. Because the
United States Board on Geographic Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest
post office, the feature acquired the name of "Meteor Crater" from the nearby post office named Meteor. The site was formerly known as the
Canyon Diablo Crater and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the
Canyon Diablo Meteorite. Scientists refer to the crater as
Barringer Crater in honor of
Daniel Barringer, who was first to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact. The crater is privately owned by the Barringer family through their Barringer Crater Company, which proclaims it to be the "best preserved meteorite crater on Earth".